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I know that there are professional burger bun pans (such as silicone or metal) available, but I've heard that some burger restaurants make their own bread with crafted pans made of paper tape since they make the burger bun grow better vertically.

Is that possible? Did anyone do it before? Can you guide me?

Stephie
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Shane
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2 Answers2

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If by "paper tape" you mean "strips of (food safe) paper or parchment" then yes, it's possible.

But before we talk about the how, let's have a quick look at the why first:
Most cooks want to match the size of the bun to the size of the patty or vice versa. Unfortunately, some recipes can be a bit unpredictable as far as the rising and expansion of the buns are concerned, and so are the abilities of the various bakers when it comes to proper shaping. A burger bun pan limits the sideways expansion, thus determining a maximum diameter. And if the bun can't expand sideways, it will go up.

Now, how you achieve that is up to you.
The aforementioned hamburger bun pans (aka mini pie pans, btw.) are but one solution. Others are baking rings, the tops of canning jars, strips of tinfoil, strips of parchment, a parchment collar inside a tin, parchment around a tin. (The latter two are probably overkill for your case.)

In short, for tinfoil or parchment you take a strip that's an inch or two longer than your desired diameter and a few times as wide as your desired height. You fold it lengthwise a few times for increased stability, then secure the overlapping ends - a stapler comes to mind. Tape will probably not stick to parchment (depends on the brand) and is not supposed to go in the hot oven. In a pinch, a piece of string (cotton, not plastic!) can work as well. The tinfoil link above has also step-by step instructions.

I personally use neither - I shape my buns until the surface is taut and usually they turn out nice enough. So in addition to crafting rings, you should also read up on how to properly shape buns.

Stephie
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Paper Tape? If there's a food safe tape that can survive oven temperatures, I've never seen it. What's more likely is they were borrowing from the souffle cooks playbook and making a collar for their bun rings using parchment paper. Must be a pretty expensive burger place if they're going through those fussy steps for their buns. I honestly can't even imagine that the bread would be significantly affected by this, but hey, experimenting is always fun.

souffle dishes with parchment collars

ChefAndy
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  • Kapton is one of the tapes that I know of that will survive ovens (and autoclaves), but I have no idea if it's food safe. And it's really expensive. It's also the translucent orange tape that you see in pictures from NASA, especially around electronics. – Joe Sep 13 '17 at 21:54
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    @Joe it's not all that expensive. Generically it's polyimide tape. Typically rated to about 500°F (260°C). There are two kinds of adhesive- silicone and acrylic. I would personally feel confident with silicone adhesive tape in contact to hold the parchment paper ring together. Not so much with direct food contact, though I **suspect** it's okay (the non-adhesive side) but I won't be testing it. Generally I think plastics at high temperatures are to be avoided. – Spehro Pefhany Sep 14 '17 at 03:29
  • @SpehroPefhany : I guess I should've said I was told it was expensive 20 years ago when I was working w/ something that needed it. But it's possible that I heard it from the faculty member who was using the equiptment bought tax-free for the project to start his own company ... it's possible he was taking consumables, too, and just wanted to make sure we didn't run out after the stuff he took. – Joe Sep 14 '17 at 04:57